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Crimson King
The Crimson King is the main antagonist of The Dark Tower Series. He is the orchestrator of the chaos and decay in the Keystone World and much of that in all the other worlds connected by the Dark Tower. His ultimate goal is to tear down the Tower, bring about Discordia, and re-make the world in his image. Eddie Dean sees the Crimson King as being equivalent to "Satan" in the religions of his own world. However, this is a simplification of the true origin of "Le Roi Russe". Ancestry As the Deschain bloodline (that of gunslingers Steven and Roland) and the bloodlines of Roland's first ka-mates such as Cuthbert Allgood are descended from the ancient King of All-World, Arthur Eld, so is that of the Crimson King. Walter admits as much while greeting Mordred, acknowledging both of Mordred's fathers (Roland and the Crimson King) as descendants of Arthur Eld, and it is revealed during The Long Road Home that he is a direct son of Arthur Eld; he reveals Arthur sowed his seed in many women including the Old Ones and so he was born which explains the reason he is not human; he is a shapeshifter capable of taking a human-like form, these powers he gains may explain why his actions however small can affect the worlds. It is noted in The Long Road Home that him talking alone causes a sleeping infant to die. His son Mordred's "true form" is described as being closer to that of the human-sized spider he sometimes appears as; a reference in the final volume to the Crimson King as "the great scuttering spider-king" suggests that this is a case of like father, like son. Role in the Dark Tower Series As the King only appears at the end of the series, descriptions and references up until then are either second-or-third-hand or mere guesses by the characters. His Majesty is alluded to in The Gunslinger by preacher woman Sylvia Pittston, who believes Walter/Marten/Flagg has impregnated her with the King's son. This turns out to be a red herring. Walter, when confronted by Roland at the end of the first volume, reveals that the King appeared to him in his boyhood, probably imbuing him with some of his powers in the process. Yet for most of Walter's preternaturally long lifespan, he was not consciously doing the King's bidding; his service to the Crimson King was "a late thing", which began "a sheaf of centuries ago" (Walter having lived for several thousand years). Walter has not physically encountered his master, who speaks to him only through visions. Between the first and fifth volumes the Crimson King is barely mentioned at all, with antagonistic factions such as the men of Hambry and the warring tribes of Lud apparently having independent motivations - although later volumes heavily imply that in all the decay and destruction of Roland's world, the Crimson King had a part. Certainly, Farson himself was as much a chesspiece on the King's board as Walter. The final three volumes are more specific regarding the King's actions; he intends to dominate the Dark Tower itself, initially by tearing it down. Ted Brautigan theorizes that while the collapse of the Tower will bring about the end of existence itself, the Crimson King believes that he and possibly his creatures will carry on in their own universe. Mordred, while experiencing frustration with a machine, thinks it no wonder that the Crimson King wants to tear it down and start over. To that end, the King has been using teams of captive telepaths, the Breakers, to erode the Beams supporting the Tower. The foiling of this plot by Roland and his ka-tet in the final volume is not enough to stop the Crimson King. After destroying the remnants of his realm, he commits a violent suicide and continues toward his goal - the Tower - as an Undead creature, there to confront Roland as prophesied by Patrick Danville. Even though by the end of the final volume, he is diminished in power and greatly aged as a result, to Roland he still looks like "Hell itself". Intertextual References The Crimson King's first major appearance is not in the Dark Tower series of books but in Insomnia by the same author. In a confrontation with that novel's hero Ralph Roberts, he initially takes the form of a handsome man whose skin is flushed red, as if engorged with blood, before shape-shifting towards the creature of Ralph's deepest nightmare. (The King cites shape-shifting as an established trend in Ralph's hometown of Derry; this plus the spider form suggest the King is also kin to 'It'.) Later in the novel, the boy Patrick Danville draws a picture of Roland facing the tower; in the painting, the Crimson King is shown at the Tower's top. Inspiration It is likely that Stephen King drew inspiration for the character of the Crimson King from King Crimson's song, The Court of the Crimson King, a psychedelic opus describing cataclysmic events occuring to entertain the King of the court. Category:Tie-In Characters Category:The Red Category:Men Category:The Dark Tower Characters